Working memory of school-aged children on the autism spectrum: Predictors for longitudinal growth.
Sohyun An Kim, Connie Kasari
PMID 37086016WHAT IT FOUND
For autistic children, learning behaviours and teacher closeness predicted working memory gains, but special education services did not.
Higher socioeconomic status meant better starting scores, yet the gap never closed. Early support matters most, as later services failed to catch those behind.
Key findings
01Higher family socioeconomic status predicted better working memory at kindergarten entry, but did not predict growth rates over elementary school.
02Receiving special education services for autism was linked to lower initial working memory scores and did not predict longitudinal growth.
03Better student-teacher closeness predicted faster working memory growth in later elementary years, while strong learning behaviours predicted faster early growth but slower later growth.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study used an existing dataset, so it could not capture specific details about the quality or intensity of special education services or outside therapies like ABA. Socioeconomic status, student-teacher relationships, and learning behaviours were treated as single composite scores over time, so the analysis could not detect how changes in these factors at specific times affected working memory. The sample was limited to children with autism, so it is unclear if these predictors work the same way for children with other developmental disabilities. Only the 'closeness' aspect of the student-teacher relationship was analysed, ignoring 'conflict', which may be particularly relevant for autistic children. The study was conducted in the United States, so the findings about special education services and socioeconomic factors may not apply to other countries.
Declared interests
The author declared no potential conflicts of interest. The project was supported in part by the Health Resources and Services Administration of the US Department of Health and Human Services under cooperative agreement UT3MC39436, the Autism Intervention Research Network on Behavioral Health (AIR-B). The funder was the Maternal and Child Health Bureau.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that special education services are ineffective. The study shows these services did not predict *growth* in working memory, but this is an observational finding. It is likely that children with the greatest deficits received these services, and without them, their outcomes might have been worse. The data cannot tell us what would have happened if those children had not received support.